Yikes, this restoration job makes that botched oil painting of Jesus Christ look decent in comparison.

A Spanish church has been put on blast for hiring an arts and crafts teacher to restore a 16th-century wooden sculpture of St George.

The parish priest of St Michael’s Church, in the northern town of Estella, had reached out to the teacher to restore St George to his former glory.

Unfortunately, the teacher wasn’t exactly an expert in this field, as the priest soon found out the hard way.

Take a look at the before and after shot:

Poor St George looks less like a heroic figure and more like Liewe Heksie’s long-last brother:

Thank goodness the horse doesn’t have to look at the abomination that is his rider.

Needless to say, cultural officials were furious with the botched restoration job, the BBC has reported:

“We cannot tolerate more attacks on our cultural heritage,” Spain’s art conservation association (ACRE) said in a statement. “It shows a frightening lack of training of the kind required for this sort of job.” …

“The council wasn’t told [about the restoration] and neither was the regional government of Navarre,” the town’s Mayor Koldo Leoz [said].

“They’ve used plaster and the wrong kind of paint and it’s possible that the original layers of paint have been lost. This is an expert job it should have been done by experts,” he said.

Well, that’s a realisation that came far too late.

Meanwhile, Spanish Twitter displayed no chill, comparing the new and far-from-improved St George to other famous figures:

With his luck, maybe St George can get a cameo in Toy Story 4.

I’m not sure the statue looks anything like Tintin, but that’s just me.

As someone who loves Stingy from LazyTown, I should feel insulted. But honestly, I think this is the best comparison so far.

No. Anything but Nicholas Cage, please.

If there are any positives to come out of this fiasco, it’s that maybe the statue could draw tourists to Estella to see the abomination in person, much like it did for the Jesus Christ fresco.

We’ll keep y’all posted on that.

[source:bbc]